From: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 06:07:51 +0800
To: cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: RE: dbts: Privacy Fetishes, Perfect Competition, and the Foregone (fwd)
Message-ID: <199811082058.OAA06231@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Forwarded message:

> From: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>
> Subject: RE: dbts: Privacy Fetishes, Perfect Competition, and the Foregone
> 	 (fwd)
> Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 12:39:33 -0800 

> > You missed my point.  What I'm trying to point out is that no 
> > government (or any other body, for that matter) can prevent 
> > someone from doing something. All the state can do (and does,
> > if you look closely) is offer to punish anyone who disobeys it.
> 
> Again that is simply incorrect, or do you wish to tell me that our military
> has not prevented the invasion of the continental US in this century, or
> that it did not prevent the Soviet Union from expanding across Europe? You
> cannot completely discount *deterrent force*, although it is greatly
> overrated.

Woah. This extension into foreign powers and such is an entirely different
venue. The entire discussion is based around the question of a government
and those citizens within it. When we start talking about multiple
government and multiple citizen sets the whole issue is orders of magnitude
more complex.

> Nor can a government use *retribution force* if it does not know the
> perpetrator.

Tell that to the hostages that were killed during the occupation of France.

> Your statement boils down to the government is not omnipotent. Well duh!

Agreed.


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